Former B.C. NDP premier Ujjal Dosanjh says he now opposes the policy of apologizing to ethnic groups for historic wrongs, saying it panders to divisive "identity politics" that are pitting Canadians against one another.

Dosanjh, Canada's first Indo-Canadian premier and a former provincial attorney general, federal Liberal MP and cabinet minister, said he's disgusted by the political haymaking over the provincial Liberal party's controversial "multicultural ethnic election strategy," which advocates "quick wins" by making apologies to ethnic groups for historic wrongs.

As an NDP MLA in the early 1990s, Dosanjh actively campaigned for the federal government to apologize for Chinese immigrants being forced to pay a head tax. When he became a Liberal MP and cabinet minister, he helped convince Prime Minister Paul Martin to make a historic apology in 2006.

The Liberal government of Paul Martin laid the groundwork for an apology over the head tax issue that was later issued formally by the new Conservative government of Stephen Harper. In 2006 Martin, who has been pressured by Dosanjh and another BC minister, David Emerson to issue a government apology, gave a personal one in during a Chinese radio talk show interview.

The new Harper government followed through with a formal apology.

But on Friday Dosanjh said he's evolved and changed his view and now thinks official apologies are wrong.

"I find that apologies are the wrong thing to do. I agree with (former prime minister Pierre Elliott) Trudeau. I think it was the wrong thing to do when (Prime Minister Brian) Mulroney started, and I think it is the wrong thing to do now," Dosanjh said.

"This kind of apologizing doesn't allow people into the mainstream. In fact, it has the opposite effect, because it strengthens the urge for identity politics. Identity politics at the end of the day isn't the kind of politics that brings cohesion to any society.

"It is the worst form of pandering by politicians, and we've been doing it for a long time in this country. B.C. Liberals are simply repeating that sin. This holier-than-thou nonsense that I hear from other politicians or from individuals from so-called ethnic communities is nauseating. For heaven's sake, we're all ethnic."

Dosanjh, an outspoken human rights activist who was born in Punjab, India, spent 10 years as an NDP MLA and became premier in 1999, when Glen Clark stepped down in a conflict. Dosanjh later switched to federal politics as a Liberal and served as Minister of Health, later serving as a Liberal Opposition critic. He was defeated in 2011 by Conservative Wai Young for the federal seat of Vancouver South.

Dosanjh said his broad political history and his fight for multicultural equality gives him a unique position on why he thinks the B.C. Liberals' ethnic election memo "is much ado about nothing."

""I was the first one to raise the issue for an apology for the Chinese head tax. I think it was a mistake to ask for an apology. I am telling you I have evolved. I have changed my views over time. I just think that (apologies don't) help. I don't begrudge people wanting apologies. I have campaigned for them. But when you sit back and look at society and the Canada of tomorrow from a larger perspective, it has been the wrong thing to do."

Dosanjh also says all political parties have played the game of trying to win votes by "pandering" to ethnic communities.

"The only mistake I think the Liberals have made is the mixing of government monies with partisan purposes. Other than that, no emperor has any clothes in this business," he said.

"The New Democrats have promised to make apologies federally, the Conservatives have done so, the federal Liberals have done so and the B.C. Liberals are re-apologizing to those who have already been apologized to federally.

"It is the worst form of politics. It tears societies apart and Canada is going that way. With or without multiculturalism, the identity power politics is on rampage in this society. Most of us want to identify in the smaller groups rather than in a large cohesive mainstream. That doesn't take away from the need for cultural and linguistic diversity, which we should celebrate. But it takes away from the common political and cultural values that this society is all about. It detracts from that."

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Former premier Ujjal Dosanjh now opposes apologizing to ethnic groups for historic wrongs

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